Summary: The demon Dreax will burst the magic bubble he has been trapped in unless you can get to the hidden valley and cast the spell that will relegate him to captivity forever. But you are limited to a thousand days or even less depending on the difficulty you choose.
Plot: you're sort of thrown out there with little idea of where to go. Fortunately you can learn pretty quickly--there are many quests you can start right away--and there's a lot to do. Towns' time advances realistically. Gates open and close at dawn and dusk, and people appear and disappear. There are towers of monsters you can try to clear off, or you can figure out a way to teleport yourself. Your characters can improve slowly through using their skills, or there are eight sleeping gods you can wake to improve attributes. Part of the difficulty of Magic Candle is deciding which quest is really necessary and which isn't. It's possible to avoid some quests entirely and still win, although solving the unnecessary ones add color to the game.
Graphics: Combat is always on the same background outside or inside, but the outside world is done very well. The towns are also likably constructed. The houses' roofs make them believable, and there are many entertaining different icons for the people you meet as well as for rooms in houses, etc. you may enter. Sound: amusing at first when you cast spells and, better yet, can be turned off afterwards, although it's useful for telling if there's an enemy nearby.
Controls: they are listed at the bottom of the screen, and the first letter of any of these commands executes that one. Very handy. One of the best features is being able to break up a party so that one person can go to a shop and work for money or learn magic or weaponry or even charisma at a guild. The party isn't stuck together, and you get the feeling your players can "do their own thing." You may even have to disband temporarily to squeeze by a tight spot, one-half of your players after the other. Even resting the party(camping on land, or voyaging from one seaport to another) is intricate--you can decide who does what(hunt, keep watch, memorize spells--which is a neat alternative to the bland "spell points" and forces you to manage time and resources.) Combat is great, because you can often set up beforehand. Although it is always done manually, combat doesn't happen terribly often, and you improve more from it. You can even flee to a town, although it will cost you energy--and if you flee from opponents, they don't always disappear. A nice challenging touch, although you may not enjoy it while you're trying to flee. You also have to "eat"--not just food you can hunt for or buy, but mushrooms. Which are useful, when, is tough to figure out. It's hard to remember what mushrooms do what, but the names-drelin, gonshi and luffin among them--are really cool, much like character names(Ziyx) and location names(Shertuz or Merg). Cool names do not an adventure game make, but they help a whole lot to make it memorable.
Replayability: A lot. You can play at different levels--hard, easy, or medium--and with each one, there are not just the puzzles to get items but also practical puzzles--how to get a party started quickly and keep it going. You can also summon different characters. In one way, it restricts you, but in another way, you're not just waiting around for the best role of the dice and really have to make a conscious choice. By the time you're done you're sure to have forgotten some of the earlier puzzles, which will still be a challenge. And besides, this is one of those games that come with a ton of neat fantasy names for places, people and spells. The monsters are balanced against your party very well, giving a very good degree of challenge.
Reviewer's Score: 9 / 10